


Five Photos of Clint Barton

by shadowen



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Five Times, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 08:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowen/pseuds/shadowen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five photos of Clint Barton that Phil Coulson didn't take (and one that he did).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Photos of Clint Barton

**Author's Note:**

> You're not really a shipper til you write a "five times" fic, right?

**1\. Age 7. School photo.**  
He’s in the bottom left corner, half-hidden by a boy twice his size. The picture is a copy of a copy of a polaroid that spent too many years in a forgotten file, and all the faces have become a series of vague eyes and mouths, blond heads and blurred features. There is a dark smudge on his cheek that might be a flaw in the image or dirt or a bruise, but there is a clarity to his smile that belies the abuses he has suffered. He’s not the first thing to draw the eye, but, once seen, he’s hard to look away from.

**2\. Age 16. Circus poster.**  
He was moving when the picture was taken, and motion lines flicker down his back and arms. The one-sheet was printed in a false sepia, but it is evident, even in the faded tones, that his costume is a vibrant color, his hair bright and pale. He’s standing on the back of a palomino, bow drawn, muscles tense, and a close inspection shows that the photo was snapped at the very moment that his fingers began to uncurl, sending his arrow sailing toward an unseen target. He is masked, but his smile is clear.

**3\. Age 18. Mugshot.**  
It’s the first clear picture of his face, and it’s not under his real name. The name on the card he’s holding is an alias that he burned years later on a short con in Brussels. His lip and brow are split, and there is a bruise beginning on his jaw. The police report that accompanies the photo claims he resisted arrest. He is young still, and his eyes, a startling blue even under the harsh station lights, are too big for his face. His expression is serious and annoyed, but the corner of his mouth curls up.

**4\. Age 23. CCTV screen capture.**  
The picture is grainy enough that it could be anyone, but intel places him at the location. It’s from the hotel security footage, and it’s the only solid evidence that he was ever there. He is walking, a phone pressed to his ear, glancing over his shoulder. The timestamp puts him in the lobby at the very moment Interpol was moving in, about to arrest his accomplice. After that, he vanished.

**5\. Age 27. SHIELD personnel photo.**  
He is staring straight ahead, shown in sharp, full color for the first time in his life. He looks at once infinitely older and eternally younger than the date below his face would suggest, his brows weathered and tight above eyes bright with mischief. He would have been instructed not to smile, to simply look at the camera and try not to blink, but his lips quirk up. Not naturally. Naturally, at rest, the line of his mouth is straight as an unstrung bow, but the humor in him draws it inexorably upward into a subtle recurve.

**Age 33. The Avengers Annual American Extravaganza (TM Tony Stark)**  
He doesn’t know the picture is being taken, is distracted by whatever he’s saying to Steve. Pepper is just visible in the background, laughing and gesturing to something out of frame, and the whole scene is set against the night skyline of Manhattan as seen from the top floor of Stark Tower. His arms are lifted as if to pantomime readying a rifle to fire. He is grinning and animated, though, so maybe he’s telling a story. Steve is listening intently, rapt and fascinated by what he’s hearing, as the party carries on around them. A spray of fireworks is just fading in the sky behind them, casting a pale corona on his face, and he looks....

Well, Phil thinks Clint looks perfect in all of them, but he might be a little biased.


End file.
